repairing rain barrel

[traveler]

So the plastic rain barrel my wife got last year filled with ice this winter and the bottom cracked. It's some sort of very heavy plastic, and the crack is right in the middle of the bottom, about 6 inches long and not spread at all. There must be some way to fix it, it just has to sit there and hold water after all. So....some type of thick epoxy? Hot melt glue? Fiberglass resin? ideas??

and yeah...keep the water out of it next winter, got that:)

[highlife4me]

Try heating up an old screwdriver and use the hot screwdriver to melt the cracked plastic back together. As long as it doesn't have to look pretty it should work pretty good.

[Pinusbanksiana]

Get a new one. 10 dollars. A guy on 2 just east of Deer River sells them. Can't miss them along side the highway. Recycle the broken one.

[fastkaw]

Hot glue gun...

Works great on plastic.

[delcecchi]

Consider JB weld plastic weld (sort of a putty looking stuff, not sure of exact name)

[Tom7227]

Depends on what it is made out of. Tough to come up with the right answer unless you know. 'Plastic' covers a lot of very different materials and they are all very different.

[fishingstar]

use a soldering iron to melt the plastic that is the first step of plastic welding.

[traveler]

Depends on what it is made out of. Tough to come up with the right answer unless you know. 'Plastic' covers a lot of very different materials and they are all very different.

yeah, kind of figured that, but (surprise!) it's kind of buried under snow again, so I can't check. I figured I'd check once I can get it out and look at it again.

[BobT]

Marine Goop! I used it two years ago to repair a split in my plastic snow shovel and it is holding yet today. In fact, the front of the shovel is chipped and broken up enough that I think it's time to get a new one but the repaired split is still holding.

[Moose]

We use the heated up screw driver to melt together our floating dock systems. They hold up really well till the next pontoon decides to try to split it in half again. We heat the screwdriver with a small Mapp gas torch. Just make sure it has an insulated handle not a plastic one.